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Friday, February 13, 2009

Scrambled Egg and Sausage Pizza...

We brought an inkling of breakfast into our Friday Night Pizza this evening and came up with this Scrambled Egg and Sausage Pizza!

I'm sure it is no surprise to you by now that we indeed used our favorite whole-wheat pizza dough for the base of our pizza. However, because of the toppings used, we did do a couple things different than we normally do - the first was to make a rim by crimping the edge. We then docked the stretched out dough all over the top and slid the naked crust onto the stone to bake. Since the toppings will be pretty much completely cooked already, we wanted to bake the crust by itself until it was golden all over.

To top this pizza, we took three-quarters of a pound worth of hot Italian turkey sausages, removed their casings and browned the meat in a skillet. Once it was crumbled and cooked, I scooped the pieces out onto a paper-towel lined plate to drain, while I melted a tablespoon of butter in the same skillet. When it was sizzling, I poured in a combination of whole eggs and egg whites that I whisked with a heavy splash of milk. You could use entirely whole eggs (you'd need eight), but I often like to swap out a few eggs with whites to make it a little lighter. After gently cooking the loose eggs until they had just barely formed curds, were still glossy and quite moist, I added the sausage back in. We scooted them out of the pan right away, just shy of being undercooked (for our tastes at least), because they will get another quick blast of heat in the oven.

Before arranging the eggs over, we scattered the top of the golden crust with a handful of shredded mozzarella. The eggs went on top, followed by an additional dose of cheese - we then slid the pizza right back onto the hot stone and let it cook long enough to turn the cheese gooey. While the sausage already had some heat to it, we did add a sprinkle of crushed red pepper just for that alluring tingle.

The contrast in texture between the thin, crispy crust and the soft, still-moist eggs, was just what we were looking for. While not overly meaty, we thought those little nuggets of leaner turkey sausage strewn throughout added just the right amount of weight without making it feel too indulgent or heavy. You could certainly add veggies if you like - bell peppers, onions or mushrooms come to mind, but Jeff vetoed that idea for ours! We did make sure to show a little restraint, even though we wanted to go back for an extra slice, because we both were looking forward to having a couple slices for breakfast in the morning!